UGH! please tell me someone else is in this boat. i always knew that seeing "running" blood (dripping, running down a limb, etc) made me feel faint-ish. or at least, i knew since i was about 20 or so. (so for roughly 15 years or so - basically my adulthood)
i really always sort of thought, if it was my kid or husband needing help, i'd suck it up and come through. we survived a broken arm when my son was 4 1/2- hubby and i were brilliant, being both calm and efficient, and getting the job done. we were a team - comforting, calm, collected, making jokes to keep him distracted while we waited for the doctors to give him the pain meds, all that great parenting stuff. it was our shining moment of glory.....
today, we saw the other side lol.
my husband was cutting up lemons and cut his finger. no big deal, right? and it wasn't a HUGE cut - it did get one drip on the floor, but after about 10 or 15 minutes it was barely bleeding at all. thing was, he started feeling woozy while running it under some cold water, and needed to sit down. started seeing spots, the whole deal. (i think personally it was because he hadn't eaten - it was NOT that much blood, really).
so here's the greatest part - in the time of his need, i had to sit down THREE times because "I" felt faint! seeing black spots, dizzy, needing to sit down ASAP, "faint". honest to goodness.
our six year old had to bring us BOTH glasses of water :(
i am so frustrated with myself...it's kinda funny now, but UGH! what kind of a mom am i?
please tell me i'm not the only one!!!!
You're a good mom! When my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I was SO needle phobic and shook so much while giving the first shot that I had to try to hold my arm still by bracing it on the hospital bed. Then I had to lie down or I would have fallen! It took me a LONG time to get used to it.
You're doing fine!
Blood does not faze me at all, my kids are always amazed at my calmness. I even had two gushing blood due to a freak accident, one most likely needing stitches but from past experience knew that I could save myself some money and use butterfly stitches, bleeding all over my house. Nope blood doesn't bother me.
Now vomit is a whole other story. I have horrible gag reflexes, the slightest tickle in my throat will make me gag and puke. Yeah, it's bad. So what do I do when the kids are puking....I puke right along with them all the while holding their head. If I'm lucky an older kid will be home and take over, they find it very pathetic that I puke along side the little ones lol
Cute story!
I don't get like that.
But when seeing vomit... plus with the whiff of its smell, that can turn my stomach.
And in my State, the stomach bug is hitting hard.
SO many kids out sick at my kids' school.
I had a kid vomit in the cafeteria the other day. I work there. But I managed.
But gawd, upchuck turns my stomach.
But in my house, I am the one that cleans it up, per my kids if they have stomach bugs.
Oh, that's funny! And I'm sure almost everybody has some variant of that story. My husband is a take-charge type and can usually think what to do in a crisis, or a non-crisis - until, several years ago, I fell down the steps in our house and broke my ankle quite thoroughly. The kids (high-school age, who thought it was exciting, or at least interesting) got their dad, who took one look at my balloon of an ankle - and turned dead white. He almost threw up. It took a few minutes for him to be able to call 911.
The closest story I can tell on myself, I think, had to do with my fear of nasty insects. Not the regular bugs, like flies and ants - the scary ones like wasps and spiders. When I was little, I was even afraid to look at pictures of them because I thought they might come alive. I always let my parents or some other grownup go after the wasps in the attic or in the car WE were in, or the big spiders who showed up every summer. Then one day, after my husband and I had just moved into our first house, I saw a big ol' (gasp!) spider on the living room wall, and looked around for a grownup to take care of it. Guess what I realized.
Train your kids well to bring you water when you need it! Tell 'em you'll do the same for them some time.
On the more serious side, taking a course in first aid might help you learn to keep cooler in a crisis involving, um, that red stuff. At least maybe you wouldn't faint until it was all over.
You are not alone I am sure. At least you know your limitations. Keep the smelling salts handy lol or be like me. A long time ago, like 35 years. I gated my kids in room except for one. He was 14 months and safe because everyone else was in their rooms. Well I am getting out of shower and the 14 month olds face is covered in blood. My husband was sleeping. Cop who had gotten I early in the morning. Now I know heads bleed. Then I realize that he is bleeding on his brand new work boots that were $30. Back then that was a lot of money. I start yelling to my husband to get his boots off lol. He thought I was crazy. He does not do well with blood of his children. A homicide in NYC no problem. Well it turns out someone threw a matchbox car and it put a tiny tiny little puncture wound in his forehead. Wiped his face and he was good to go. So you see, we are the two ends of the spectrum. Just who we are right. I think if push came to shove, you would be okay in the moment, then walk away and pass out lol.
Have a good weekend Mama.
Ha! Lota help you are! I have my moments, too.
But NOTHING like my youngest. He once saw a Rugrats cartoon in which Chucky cut his finger ...and there was the red look of blood. He promptly threw up and turned white! I have a lot of stories to tell his wife!
My husband nearly fainted during the delivery of both of my boys.
I don't freak out if I see blood on anyone, except my son. For some reason I turn into another person..Anytime he gets sick, injured, etc..I flip. Now, if anyone else had medical issues, I would be the first one to respond.
I would say that you have an extreme phobia to blood. Might want to look into that one. As far as being a mother and freaking out, that is COMPLETELY normal..
I literally laughed out loud at that :) Especially the 6 year old having to bring you BOTH water ... OMG. I think you had a sympathetic reaction ... hubby got all dizzy and stuff, You got all dizzy and stuff ... It happens. Don't beat yourself up to much.
Myself ... I'm a phlebotomist and I'd be in BIG trouble if I had a reaction to blood. I'm also in nursing school ... so yeah ... vomit, pee, poop, blood, pus, all that other nasty stuff ... no biggie for me :)
Well, you're a fine mom, you're just not a nurse. I'm betting that if your kid needs help where blood is involved, you'll deal, and then faint when it's over. Your hubby's a big boy. If it were major, you'd probably do the deal and faint thing ; )
LOL! I can just imagine this.
My older daughter is such a weak puke...she started passing out the first time she had her period.
I have to suck it up if I cut myself, otherwise, I will be picking her up.
Everyone has something that gets to them. Don't beat yourself up over the fainting at blood thing. Just keep the 6 yr old around to bring water.
I have a cousin who almost bled to death because his Mom fainted at the sight of blood (this was in the 60's).
If Dad was late getting home from work, he would not have got him to the ER in time to save him.
Blood never bothered me.
I've scraped myself up, washed up others injuries, donated blood, etc with no problems.
With my son, I take care of what needs it up front and save the panic for later on.
Girl - check the house - do you have carbon monoxide building up??? Seriously - those are the signs of carbon monoxide....
As to blood making me faint? Nope. When I was in college and doing my A&P dissections on a cadaver - I could eat a burrito supreme from Taco Bell...
What makes me "ill"??? Teeth. Loose teeth. I cannot pull out my children's teeth. It's not the blood - it's the loose teeth...makes my stomach churn...
I hope you are both okay!! Sorry your husband cut his finger. I wonder just how much blood he lost...for some people seeing their own blood makes them faint!!
You will (are) be a great mom!!! Deep breaths!!
I can't deal with loose teeth or baby belly buttons (eeeewwww). DH can't deal with ears (as in having to clean them on a little one) or nails (he accidentally cut my daughter's thumb when she was an infant and couldn't go near her with a nail clipper ever again). DD is 13 now, so we're good but we all have our limits.
Well, I couldn't read all of your post because I was starting to feel weird! You are not alone in this.
I read somewhere that it's actually a physical response for some people, and that it's not easy to control.
I must be one of those people too!
I'm not bad about it if I'm right there when the injury occurs and just deal with it. But in any scenario where I am not the "first responder" and my husband yells, "What in the world happened to your [fill in random body part here]?" in that special tone that denotes utter shock, horror, and disgust, I start to get all shaky and feel the hysteria welling up... And then he demands that I look at it to assess the seriousness of the injury (why this step is necessary, I don't know; it's like he needs validation for being completely grossed out). It usually takes some major will power to overcome that moment of cowardice, but really, I just don't want to know that I am about to look at a split open finger, eyebrow, knocked out tooth, or what have you. Most of the time, it's not as bad as I expected it to be, however with the knocked out tooth and the split open finger, I'd just as soon not see that happen again, thank you very much.
And don't even get me started on spiders.
bet that cold water managed to hit a nerve!
LOL on little one being the 'rescuer' there - he now has a story to tell!
I have had to do a lot of things, while completely freaking out inside.
I had a grown man puke on my face, and somehow was able to hold it together.
Dont ask me how.
Blood does freak me out. After 3 kids, I can just now get blood taken without seeing spots.
It all freaks me out, but somehow, I get through it.
